Press Release
March 12, 2007

Canadian expert’s visit will yield sweet rewards for beekeepers in Armenia

WINNIPEG, MAN,  March 19, 2007– When a group of beekeepers in Armenia asked for help to expand their market and increase sales, the Canadian Executive Service Organization (CESO) sent Charles Polcyn, a professional apiarist from Winnipeg, Manitoba.

A beekeeper for more than 30 years, Charles is a Senior Bee Inspector for the province of Manitoba. He is also a former mathematics teacher.

"The success of this assignment will be seen in the 2007 beekeeping season as some Armenian beekeepers try out some of the low cost/high potential return changes in their beekeeping and honey production practices," says Charles, who has been a CESO Volunteer Adviser (VA) since 2004.

A non-profit, volunteer-based organization, CESO provides economic development and governance expertise to client/partners in Africa, Asia, the Americas and the emerging market economies in Eastern Europe and to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians.

Charles is one of CESO's 3,000 VAs, a nation-wide talent bank of senior level individuals who have the ability, expertise and passion to provide business advisory services, mentorship and technical expertise to clients who could not otherwise afford a paid consultant.

"This was my third assignment in Armenia," says Charles, who has also completed one assignment in the Philippines. "This time I was in the town of Sisian, a five-hour drive from the capital of Yerevan. My earlier assignments in Armenia took me to Yeghegnadzor and Gyumri, where I'm pleased to report that better beekeeping practices are being used and more honey is being produced."

Charles was working with the Association of Beekeepers of Sisian Region, a cooperative of 150 individual enterprises, representing 30 per cent of the local beekeeping sector.

Cumulatively, the association's members have approximately 8,000 hives and annually produce 150 tons of honey. The association asked Charles to assess the quality of their honey, its current market potential and develop a marketing strategy. They hope to expand their honey sales to a wider area throughout the country and increase their overall sales.

During his three weeks in Armenia in the fall of 2006, Charles trained five people in modern beekeeping techniques; expanded their knowledge of new beekeeping technologies and tools; prepared a two-year draft marketing plan and developed attractive bilingual labels for their honey jars.

In addition, new honey extraction technology was explained and demonstrated that could lead to a 50 per cent increase in production output from 10 kg per hive to over 20 kg per hive.

"New principles and methods introduced by the VA will be tried out and we believe they will be much more effective than the traditional methods," the association later told CESO.

As a leading Canadian international development agency, CESO’s work overseas is largely supported by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) while the national program receives primary funding from Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC). Additional funding comes from client/partners, multilateral agencies, Canadian corporations, foundations and scores of interested individuals.

Does all this sound interesting? For information about donating to CESO or to learn about becoming a volunteer, please visit www.ceso-saco.com.

-30-

For more information, members of the media may contact:

Josie Marchese
Communications Manager
Tel: (416) 961-2376 Ext. 253
jmarchese@ceso-saco.com

Charles Polcyn
Tel: (204) 284-7064
charlespolcyn@yahoo.com